AS angry and confused as parents are now - which engenders similar emotions among their children - this is far from a crisis.
It is easy to conclude that it is a wholesale mess when you consider that the coverage since Saturday has been scant on pertinent detail.
There were 279 children unplaced - almost the same as the last few years and a touch more than 2020.
However, it is clear the upset isn't being caused by this figure.
Instead it is the unknown number of young people who have missed out on a certain type of school.
Everyone saw this coming. With no entrance exams taking place, grammar applications were certain to rise.
This next bit is key. Grammar schools published their criteria in advance. So parents knew, or should have known, how difficult or otherwise it was going to be.
For the most part, many ignored Department of Education advice to list at least one non-grammar as a preference.
Some proudly claimed they "refused" to list non-grammar schools, so it is difficult to sympathise with them. With their children, yes.
Almost all pupils, looking at the percentages, have a school place and there are more than enough left over for anyone still without one.
Some parents are plain refusing to believe the figure of 85 per cent achieving their first preference because "everyone I have spoken to didn't get their first choice".
Such snap polls are far from scientific.
It is conceivable that some of the other parents that these people spoke to in their Whatsapp group, all applying for the same oversubscribed grammar school, did fail to achieve their number one pick. But that may be a few out of more than 3,000 children across the north.
Several emails have been received since Saturday in which parents indicated their intention to appeal.
All have come from those with grammar aspirations. In all of them, they clearly know their kids did not meet the criteria. These appeals will fail.
One parent said their child was "heartbroken" that they would be attending "the local secondary". How does an 11-year-old know to react like this?
There have also been claims of children being offered spots in Irish-medium schools when they don't speak the language. No one is `offered' any school they did not list in their application. They will be sent, or can look up online, a list of all schools that still have space.
Others say their children are now faced with enduring lengthy round-trip home to school journeys. In many cases, parents are happy to send their kids off on a bus to grammar schools in Belfast, bypassing several local secondary providers.
There is no doubt that some have missed out on grammars this year because they were denied the chance to sit the 11-plus, and this will happen again to a lesser extent in 2022 with some grammars already opting out.
There is a good case for wholesale change of the transfer system, but until that happens, and it might be controversial to suggest this, entrance tests might not be such a bad idea. In administration terms at least.
